


But A Shadow

by DarkHell616



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Eventual Romance, Falling In Love, Fate & Destiny, Gen, Love, Red String of Fate, Romance, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, True Love, ghost story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-06-27 09:05:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15682296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkHell616/pseuds/DarkHell616
Summary: Near enough everyone has a One.Their Soulmate, who they are bound to by Fate.As my best friend was hyped up about finding her, I began to think about whether I even had one.I didn't believe I did, until I returned home from work and saw 'it' standing in the corner.





	1. Chapter One

Every corner of the world has their own version of what a Soulmate is.

There are many variations of how people are connected, how they will eventually meet and what will help them identify that that specific person are the right One.

Some may not be visible to the naked eye, like the red string of fate that remains attached to a singular finger or the ankle.

Forever stretching but never tangling no matter the distance or circumstances, until the day they finally meet.

Or perhaps someone would be born with specific markings etched onto their skin, like tattoos or scars that decorate the body, some being a simple symbol of their fascinations, hobbies or perhaps a hint as to where or how the meeting was destined to occur and some being the first words that person will ever speak to their One.

There are so many versions of how the link between Soulmates occurred, each as fascinating as the next and astounding to behold.

Many books over the course of history have been written about different cultures and their beliefs on Soulmates and the various links to their One, how certain traditions began and the devastation that can occur when those bonds are broken.

Many more of those books being ones that decorated my plethora of shelves at home.  
It was a subject that always fascinated me, being the mythology and folk lore buff that I liked to think that I am.

And although I truly believed in the concept of a Soulmate, especially after witnessing it happening first hand, it was something I never believed that I would encounter personally.

Though, truth be told, it also wasn’t something that I truly latched on to and felt that I needed in my life.

Naturally the thought behind it all was pleasing and I looked forward to when it would happen to me, but it was also something I wasn’t chasing the tail end of in hopes of catching sooner rather than later.

For the time being, I stuck with my magnitude of books and imaginings whilst listening to my friends and associates nattering on about their own wishes and hopes or even completed stories of meetings and romance.

It wasn’t anything new to hear repeat stories of how people I knew met their One, each tale being enthralling and intriguing in their own way even if the Soulmate connection was the same as another.

By count I had heard at least three involving first sentences, two symbols and one that was simply love at first sight which I put down to the invisible red thread.

My parents were the first to tell me about their ‘love at first sight’ story.

I believe that I was around ten or eleven when my mum first told me about how she met dad and it was endearing, even at that young age.

She always said that when she first met dad the world became washed over with colours she had never witnessed before, the black and white of her previous life being one she hoped not to return to for many more years to come.

It was a heart warming story to listen to and I always intended on asking dad about it, but somehow it was a conversation that never came up.

Currently, I believe that my best friend is in the process of finding her One and each update makes me hope that they are due to meet anytime soon.

“I just finally need him to say something,” she pouts, resting her head on top of her hand with a dramatic sigh.

“Give him time,” I laugh, “you’ve only been creeping on him for a week.”

“Creeping? I haven’t been creeping.”

“You’ve been creeping a little.”

“Fine, but it’s definitely only been a little.”

I roll my eyes but continue to smile at my friends’ antics.

My best friend swears that about two weeks ago she met her One.

She had overheard during a conversation he had with a colleague of hers that the man had just moved into the town barely a month ago and was looking for a gym membership, it was just her luck that this gorgeous blond man with unusual coloured eyes happened to pick her gym to join.

The only problem was that despite his continuing visits, he hadn’t spoken a word to her personally.

“It can’t be much longer,” she said with an added whine, jutting out her bottom lip.

As she spoke, she ran her fingers over the blocky and uncoordinated lines that decorated the space on her inner arm, just above the elbow.

“Probably not, I mean how long does it take someone to need a towel?” I grin teasingly.

“I hate you.”

“I know.”

We both slow down and share a glance towards my flat, sighing as it was that time again.

Time to go our separate ways until tomorrow.

The dreaded best friend separation.

“Text me later then?” She asks.

“As always,” I nod, “stay safe with the rest of the walk home.”

She let out a groan and rolled her eyes at me, “It’s barely five more minutes.”

“Many tragedies only take a minute to happen.”

“I think you’re just a worrier.”

“I like to call it being motherly.”

We share another laugh before going our separate ways, I watch for a moment as she disappears down the street and once she’s more of a blur than a solid figure I head inside the block of flats, fishing in my messenger bag for my house keys which had undoubtedly slunk to the bottom.

I decide to take the stairs to my second floor flat, giving myself some well needed exercise after the amount of junk food I had eaten over the past few days.

My thighs will surely hate me, but I know that in the long run I would feel better about myself for it, it’s the small things in life.

Though I do count my stint at work as exercise, lugging around heavy boxes, rushing around to cater to people and general stretching for stock, a little more wouldn’t hurt until the next morning.

As I enter the empty stairwell and head up to the second floor, trying to pump myself up into feeling a little more energetic than I truly felt, I find myself thinking of Julie’s situation for the hundredth time since learning of her little attraction.

It was lovely to see her get so excited over the prospect of finally finding her One and my heart swelled at the thought of her being happy, she truly deserved it.

I personally never held the belief that I will ever have a One, I couldn’t imagine having anyone dying to meet me and complete their world.

I have no unusual marks on my skin aside from ignorable stretch marks, I can see the world in colour so unless I met my One in the hospital from birth then that wasn’t my condition.

There are no physical signs that I have a soulmate, so I put it down to the red thread   
that is invisible to the naked eye.

The thought of the thread being my connection wasn’t exactly a thrilling prospect, but it’s the only explanation I have and that in itself acted as a comfort that I was not going to be one of the Unconnected.

Not that being Unconnected was a terrible thing, it just isn’t something I want personally.

Which in itself I guess is odd, I never lingered on the thought of romance and it certainly wasn’t a genre I would take part in for fun, but yet I still yearned to be the other half to a couple.

I have a few friends who, as far as any of us can tell at least, are Unconnected and they seem to have a blast getting dates and meeting new people.

Occasionally they settled down for a while, from months to a few years, but ultimately they would drift apart in mostly amicable ways.

It is somehow strangely admirable.

How they never appear to linger on the prospect of having no Marking, no connection to their One unless, like my hypothetical one, it’s invisible to the naked eye.

It’s typically said that people meet their One before they hit their mid-forties, so they each still had plenty of time before their time was up, but they took the name Unconnected and ran with it.

My thighs are screaming when I finally reach my floor, it was only about four flights of steps and still my lungs burn and I found that I was breathing in deep pants.

“I really need to get into better shape,” I gripe.

It’s not as if I don’t exercise regularly, I try to keep myself in basic working condition with regular leg and arm exercises using weight, but it seems as though I’m going to have to go a little harder on myself if going upstairs still winds me.

Though to be fair to myself, it’s only usually this bad after I’ve been on my feet for hours or have ran up and down flights multiple times within a short period.

I fish my key out of my pocket, the lanyard strap being typically tangled with the headphones that snake out of my jacket to cause the process to be ten times more difficult than it had to be.

“Get off, you bitch,” I mutter, jiggling the lanyard in a vain attempt to untangle the two leads without going to too much effort.

Something I already knew I would have to resort to anyway.

With an irritable grumble, I resolve to simply letting them remain tangled as long as I can get my front door key separated from the mess of keyrings and ear pieces.

The usual wave of ‘I’m home’ relief rushes through me as the lock clicks open and the door handle makes its satisfying clack as I push it down, the door swinging open to reveal my dark home.

There’s a slight chill to the empty flat, which tells me that I must have accidentally left my bedroom window open again and yet it was still welcomingly warmer than it was outside during my walk home.

I switch on the light and instantly have the squint them a little, behind my eyes was a horrible pain from the shifting heat and the changing lights.

Winter walks home in the dark always have that affect on me, it’s an inconvenience but what can I do about it?

Finally kicking my shoes off feels as satisfying as ever, the cold floor seeping into the soles of my feet began to sooth my aching heels near enough instantly.

Although I know getting up later for any reason was going to prove a tad painful after a spell of relaxing, as it usually did after work or extended periods on my feet, but luckily I have mastered the art of walking on the balls of my feet until the pain subsided enough for me to walk normally.  
I’ll eventually get it checked out at the doctor’s, but that time isn’t now.

My heels are already screaming at me in pain, that mixed with my headache and the fact that I had the day off tomorrow leads me to the decision of grabbing some food, flopping onto my settee and binging some films from the stack I haven’t even glanced at in about two months.

And so, fifteen minutes, one chocolate mocha and a cheese and cucumber sandwich later, I am ready to get lost in some horrific action of the torture kind.

While awkwardly juggling my plate and cup, because why should I make things easy on myself? I manage to flip on the living room light.

Almost an instant later, I find myself near to dropping everything I was holding as the light filled the room and revealed an uninvited guest who was stood in the corner beside the window.


	2. Chapter Two

“I’m telling you exactly what I saw.”

My two friends exchange a look that seemed to scream ‘yeah, she’s gone a little loopy,’ as if I wasn’t sat right in front of them with a look that begs to be believed.

Archie lets out a loaded sigh and looked back at me, his fingers encasing his warm coffee mug.

“You’re sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“You might have just been tired,” Julie speaks up, as if trying to sound reassuring but isn’t wholly confident in what she’s saying.

“I wasn’t just tired, it was right there, stood beside my living room window.”

“Doing what?” Archie asks, finally lifting his cup to take a sip.

Archie is my other best friend.

We’ve known each other for as long as I’ve known Julie, coming up to eleven years, and he’s always been a great support.

We have one of those friendships where although we may not speak for ages, we can pick up as if no time has gone by and I know he’d be there for me as I would be there for him should something happen.

There’re a few distinguishing features about Archie, much as with Julie having two different colours in her hair and snakebite piercings, he had long brown hair, a wonderfully matching beard and was quite well known for being a very tall, quite burly but too friendly giant.

Needless to say, I felt safe when venturing about with him.

There was also the fact that he had a marking on his wrist, one he usually covered with his watch strap, that indicated something about his One.

He hated it, always said that it reminded him too much of a My Little Pony, which he also hated with the fiery passion of a burning God.

“I don’t know, if I had to hazard a guess I’d say it looked like it was stirring something.”

Their frowns return and make a bit of irritation flare up a little in my chest, surely they know me better than to think I’d make up something like this.

“So, what are you saying it was again?”

“A shadow.”

“That’s it?” Julie remarks, picking up her can of energy drink.

“Yes, just this well-defined shadow.”

“Well-defined?”

“Very, as if I could see details and outlines of clothes within this mass of black.”

I sigh and run a hand through my hair, staring at the table as if it has the answer that I’m searching for atop its stained surface.

There was no way in Hell that it was all a mirage created from my tired mind, I hadn’t been that tired when I’d gotten home.

A little winded and full of aches, yes, but not tired to the point of hallucination.

“Call me crazy, but I believe you.”

“What?” I look at Julie in surprise, definitely not expecting the sudden turn around.

“Yeah,” she shrugs, “I mean, you live in an old apartment so it makes sense if you’re haunted or something.”

“I don’t think it’s a ghost though,” I pout in thought with a little shake of my head, “it doesn’t align with the typical haunting patterns.”

“There are many kinds of ghosts,” she points out.

I huff a little but nod all the same.

She may have a point, if my encyclopaedias and near on obsessive intake of supernatural shows had taught me anything, it’s that spirits, ghosts and omens can manifest in many ways and shadow people was one that had absolutely come up before.

Though that doesn’t explain why it appeared now, out of nowhere with a stirring fetish.

“I suppose I could try the old trick of opening the doors and windows and asking it to leave.”

“That sounds kind of dumb,” Julie comments with a teasing smile.

“Well what do you want me to do? Call an exorcist?”

“You could try,” Archie shrugs, though the look in his eyes gave it away that he was also teasing me.

“I don’t know any exorcists!”

A little surprised at my own volume, I find myself looking around the small café to make sure I hadn’t drawn too much attention to us.

Thankfully it seems like the other three people who were in here were far too involved in their own thing, be it putting sugar into their steaming drink or admiring the scarce bits of old town photographs that decorated the pastel yellow walls.

I drop my head into my hands and let out a low groan, my fingers tangling in my hair as I scratch at my scalp.

“I think you’re over thinking things,” Archie smiles, patting my arm comfortingly.

“Probably, but it really freaked me out.”

“Which is weird, as you’re into this kind of stuff.”

“Doesn’t mean I want to be haunted.”

“True,” Archie sighs and we make eye contact as I lift my head up from my hands. “I’ll tell you what, how about you stay at my place for a while? We have a few empty rooms.”

I smile at him and give a small nod, “That would be nice, wait, are you going to charge me?”

“Of course, but you can have a five percent friend discount.”

We all share a laugh as I roll my eyes and begin shoving my belongings, such as my purse and notebook, back into my well-used tote bag.

“You’re so generous.”

“I know, don’t get used to it, second night will be double rate.”

Julie lets out a slight groan which draws my attention to her, if her eyes were rolled any further back into her head I would have to say that she was possessed.

“It’s that time again.”

“Back to work?” I ask, finishing off my long forgotten white hot chocolate.

“Yes, have I ever said that I hate split shifts?”

“Many times.”

“I should get going too, the plants won’t water themselves,” Archie shrugs, standing up from his chair and gathering his worn leather jacket.

“I guess I’ll mimble about and enjoy my time off.”

They both shoot me a disdainful look that I can only laugh at, giving them a teasing poke out of my tongue in response.

“Rub it in,” Archie grumbles, shrugging and tugging on his jacket so that it sits comfortably.

“I plan to.”

“Of course, I’ll see you later.”

“Later,” I wave, “oh! And don’t forget to tell me when you’re off so I can book our tickets for October.”

He huffed out a wry laugh, “Whenever I know, you’ll know.”

He bid us both a farewell and left the small café, his height making him look like Godzilla weaving through a city that he could knock over with an accidental stumble.

I look at Julie who is also adjusting her coat, zipping it up so that it tucks neatly under her chin.

“Will you message me any updates?”

“Of course, you have fun watching your little gym bunny.”

“I intend to, to make sure he’s using the equipment properly of course.”

“Yeah,” I say dryly, “and I enjoy playing Resident Evil for the compelling story that just so happens to feature Leon.”

“I’d believe it.”

I laugh with her before she waves goodbye with a promise to update me on anything, which will no doubt turn into random messages during a slow shift as it normally does if I’m home to read them.

She leaves and I am left alone to my own devices once again.

Usually, if I had nothing to do in town, I’d go straight home and waste my time online whilst waiting for Julie to come onto Skype so we could talk some more, but after last night I wasn’t particularly eager to head home just yet.

So I decide to waste time by waltzing around town and window shopping, doing anything to bide my inevitable return back home to gather things to take to Archie’s.

But in the back of my mind, even as I was piling up on items in Poundland to stock up my little ‘face wipe’ drawer in the bathroom, the thought of going home and seeing the Shadow there, waiting for me, was always waiting around the corner.


End file.
